Message from the President: Setting Our Sights on Thriving Adolescents

 

“…we are each other’s 

harvest: 

we are each other’s 

business: 

we are each other’s 

magnitude and bond.” 

– from Paul Robeson, by Gwendolyn Brooks 

 

Imagine how different the lives of young people would be if we took Gwendolyn Brooks’ words to heart. If we thought of adolescents as our harvest. If we wrapped them in love and safety and belonging. If we made their thriving a priority. 

Brooks, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, grew up on Chicago’s South Side. She began writing poetry as a young girl and published her first poem in 1930 when she was 13. For Brooks, as for so many young people today – and for many of us at the Stuart Foundation – poetry was a tool to bear witness, to challenge, to offer hope and inspiration.   

Nearly a century later, young creatives (poets, storytellers, and artists of all types) from across the state are challenging us to imagine a different present and future. One rooted in their well-being. In belonging. Their vision and their poetry took center stage earlier this month at Cultivating Possibilities, a White House Youth Policy Summit, where young people were in conversation with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services Xavier Becerra, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and dozens of researchers, advocates, and philanthropists – all intent on understanding how to create the conditions for young people to thrive. 

California was well represented at the event, both by youth from throughout the state and by several organizations based or working in the Golden State, including Foundation partners YR Media, the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent, the California Community Schools Learning Exchange, and Jobs for the Future.  I also had the privilege of talking with two young people, Perla and Iziaih, who lead the Young Adult Steering Council of the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership, a grantee of the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, our sister Foundation in Los Angeles. They shared how their expertise and lived experiences are shaping local and state policies and how the work on the ground is more likely to be healing and human-centered when it’s truly shaped for and by young people. 

The White House event, supported by the Funders for Adolescent Science Translation (FAST), was a welcome opportunity to center the expertise and lived experience of adolescents and to truly listen. It was also a powerful reminder that public systems – from schools to municipalities to social services – are not designed with youth thriving at the center.  

What will it take to transform systems to serve young people well? 

For me, it starts with addressing head on the imagination gap, with daring to dream of a future that centers the health and well-being, the hopes, and dreams of young people.  Belief matters, too. Belief in youth themselves and the essential role they must play in reimagining schools and other systems of support. And belief that systems and practices can be transformed to make thriving the rule, not the exception for each and every young person. 

In California, young people tell us what they want – and deserve – for themselves and for each other. A restful night’s sleep in a warm house. Three healthy meals a day. An amazing school down the street and joyful and hands-on learning opportunities to keep them inspired and engaged. Green space, parks, arts, and athletics – all in schools and community spaces where they are seen and supported. Opportunities for young people to shape their schools and communities, to shape policy, and a belief that their voice and contributions matter. Purposeful careers and opportunities to be fully and unapologetically themselves. And now more than ever, an opportunity to claim their civic identity and to shape the future of our fragile democracy. Those are some of the markers of thriving. 

Over the past several years, when budgets were flush, California invested billions of one-time resources to support the health and well-being of its young people: $4.1 billion for community schools; $4.6 billion in children’s behavioral health; $500 million in college and career pathways; $200 million for dual enrollment; more than $100 million in its community engagement initiative. While it is too soon to know the long-term impact of these investments, the state has taken an important and necessary step by investing in strategies that research shows can change the odds for young people. Is it enough? No. But  it represents forward movement on a path. And, based on research from UC Berkeley researcher Rucker Johnson and others, California will need to stay on course if we expect to see lasting impact. 

There is no shortage of pessimistic prognosticators these days, including – maybe especially – about the ability of the public education systems to serve and support young people well. But, as always, I prefer to remain hopeful – the kind of hope Rebecca Solnit describes as framed and supported by action. This clear-eyed optimism is fueled by the energy that has been catalyzed by recent investments and a deep commitment to creating a more just and equitable system. 

There will be plenty of distractions and challenges in the year ahead, including a significant budget deficit and an abundance of ugly and divisive rhetoric that could easily divert attention and focus away from thriving. But we could, just as easily, choose to imagine a more hopeful and youth-friendly future. We could set our sights on thriving and then make the choices that move us closer to that vision. 

In solidarity, 

Sophie 

 

The original artwork above is by Blaze Bautista, and is part of the California Partnership for the Future of Learning’s 2023 Arts & Culture series.